Spent all day Sunday at the Google Workshop for Educators here at NECC, where the Google suite of apps and Apps were explored and explained. I can see that I will have to make the time to explore and play further.

The day was really hands on and active, with opportunities aplenty to try out, ask for help, share ideas, set up accounts and play with the applications.

The huge size of the group meant that there were educators of all experiences and teaching levels – who were able to share what they were doing or ask questions for clarification that really helped everyone get the most out of the session.

I had already heard (and seen on their blogs) lots of really exciting ways to use Google apps from Tom Barrett and Ollie Bray so I was hoping to get some more info on how to use the apps I knew of and the many others that I knew were available.

I wasn’t disappointed with the day – I learnt about many cool apps and features that I will use with my kids back in class. Here are some of the ones I like most:

·      Google Search (!!!!!!! Yes I know its basic – but wait just see!) Click “Show Options” and then Wonder Wheel – a basic visualiser of the search results. Timeline – another option which puts all the search results in a timeline (obviously!) great for disasters, geography.

·      Google Books – I’d like to play with this one a bit more, waiting for some ideas on what to do with this!

·      Google Forms -  interesting tool that I think the kids  could use as well as the teacher – they could make their own revision quizzes, own tests, and surveys too 

The session was supported with lots of online info, presentations, videos etc so that we can explore further in our own time. Check out the swag of goodies given out – gotta love a freebie

Hmmmmm now to see how many of these great apps are not blocked by the department when I get back to school!   ;-(